Feds differ from locals on flood control plan for Peckman River

Officials on the Passaic Valley Flood Control Board are concerned that a project to mitigate flooding along the Peckman River in Little Falls, Woodland Park and Cedar Grove is being downsized. At their meeting last Thursday, from left, is Tom Minnella, Dorothy O'Haire, and Little Falls' public works Superintendent Phil Simone.

Local officials fear that a flood control project the Army Corps of Engineers has been developing for their towns in the wake of Tropical Storm Floyd in 1999 - a storm that led to the death of an elderly man in the Jackson Park section of Little Falls - could be significantly downsized.

Documents the Corps sent to the Passaic Valley Regional Flood Control Board this month reveal that the plan the federal agency currently considers the most economically viable differs greatly from the plan the board believes will most benefit the region. The plan, which is one of 10 that have been considered for the river, is referred to by the Corps as "Alternative No. 3" and would include provisions only for a diversion culvert to take floodwaters from the Peckman River, which is prone to flash flooding, to the larger Passaic River.

Other flood control measures, such as channel improvements upstream of Route 46, and flood walls around the Great Notch Brook in Woodland Park, are not included in that plan, as they are in a ninth alternative that flood control board members have expressed support for.

"If the Army Corps of Engineers is going to move forward with option three, which is culvert only, we'd be worried that would not meet the original intent of this entire project because option three protects a limited section of Little Falls and a limited section of Woodland Park, versus option nine, which the board, collectively, including the mayors of the towns, have supported," said the board's chairman Nicholas Agnoli, during a meeting in Woodland Park last Thursday.

Robert Greco, project manager for the Corps, however, said on Tuesday that the Corps is working up an additional plan at the recommendation of state Department of Environmental Protection, the non-federal funding partner for the study, and that his team hopes to soon determine if that is a more cost effective option.

That includes a variety of "non-structural" alternatives in portions of Little Falls and Woodland Park, to mitigate flooding, including "ring walls" or flood walls surrounding homes, home elevations above the 100-year-flood plain, and home buyouts, he said.

"We have to compute the costs, benefits, net benefits and cost ratio for this new alternative, and then once we do that, we'll see if this alternative has the highest net benefits," he said.

Corps officials have said that if they ultimately find the most economically beneficial plan, referred to as National Economic Development (NED) plan, is different from the plan preferred by the non-federal sponsor, Woodland Park, Little Falls and Cedar Grove, along with the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) would have to make up the cost difference.

"The non-federal sponsor, if it chose alternative nine. would currently be responsible for $83 million. This is over and above the cost share we would have for alternative three," Greco said, although he emphasized that the exact cost estimates will change as they move forward in their planning. The third alternative is estimated by the Corps to cost $55.64 million. The cost sharing agreement would have Congress authorize 65 percent of the funding for the project, with the rest of the cost being split between DEP and the local towns.

Dorothy O'Haire, secretary of the regional flood control board, said the local towns would not be able to share in that cost.

"It's impossible because there is such a big difference," she said. "It worked up to almost $10,000 a household."

Flood board member Tom Minnella, of Woodland Park, said the Corps' third alternative does protect residents in the Jackson Park section of Little Falls, but that is not enough.

"The best interests of the residents are not being served here," he added.

Agnoli noted that $4.8 million in state and federal dollars has been allocated to the Corps for the study alone, and he is disappointed in the result.

"For 10 years we've been promised a project that doesn't resemble this in any way," Agnoli said.